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My Neighbor Seki & Rumi's Phenomenon's Live-Action Show Casts Fumika Shimizu as Yokoi

Manga news website Katsunori Hara's Rumi's Phenomenon (Rumi-chan no Jishō) manga.

Yokoi is the lead female character of My Neighbor Seki. She sits next to Seki in class and is frequently distracted by the games he plays on his desk.

Each of the eight 30-minute episodes in the program will be split in half between My Neighbor Seki and Rumi's Phenomenon. Even though the two manga were created separately, they both happen to have heroines named Rumi. The first episode will premiere on July 26 at 24:50 (effectively July 27 at 12:30 a.m.) on TBS.

Yūtarō Watanabe (pictured top row in image to the left), who made his debut in the Itsutsu Kazoreba Kimi no Yume film, will Shiori Tomita (pictured bottom row in image to the left), a singer and the fifth MC of the variety show saku saku, will play Rumi Ikuno, or Rumi-chan in the Rumi's Phenomenon half of the show.

Dub is producing both parts of the series.

The original My Neighbor Seki manga revolves around a girl named Rumi Yokoi who sits next to a boy known as “Seki-kun.” During class, Seki-kun continues to not pay attention and instead creates amazingly thorough little distractions, such as a detailed golf course with the course's hole being a dent in his desk, or an entire dramatic war being played out by paper shogi pieces.

Rumi's Phenomenon follows Rumi Ikuno, a second-year student who transferred into the Hanagaoka Private Girls' Academy. She leads a simple, oblivious life, even as she causes bewilderment and trouble around her. The manga depicts the profoundly strange girl's life that is sometimes amusing, but mostly irritating

Morishige began My Neighbor Seki in streamed the series as it aired in Japan. The manga also inspired several live-action commercials in 2011.

Hara launched his Rumi's Phenomenon manga in Weekly Big Comic Spirits magazine, and Shogakukan published the sixth compiled book volume last October.